Since the advent of motor vehicles, law enforcement personnel have been faced with the problem of how to stop the fleeing vehicle of fugitives. Portable barricades have been erected for this purpose but the vehicles more often than not simply plow through the same and keep going. Additionally, two or more police vehicles are parked across the road to form a roadblock in hopes of stopping the fleeing vehicle. Quite often serious wrecks occur as a result of this type of roadblock with both the fugitive or fugitives and the law enforcement personnel on the scene being injured. Additionally, the cost to the public as a result of attempts to crash through vehicle roadblocks can be extremely high in damaged or destroyed vehicles.
Further, over and above the cost of barricades and vehicles, a large number of law enforcement personnel are required to properly set up a roadblock and maintain the same.